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The Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) has commended the government for taking the bold step in bringing to finality the issue of transferring the Tier-2 Pension Funds to the various Labour Unions.

The Union acknowledged the crucial support from the various workers’ groups that demonstrated against the delay by government in releasing the funds for the registered schemes to manage.

Mr Augustine Saakuur Karbo, the General Secretary of TEWU in an interview with the Ghana News Agency commended all stakeholders for ensuring the finality of the Tier-2 pension Fund issues.

He said government recently released more than three billion Ghana Cedis of the Tier-2 Pension funds to workers’ unions to be managed by their Registered Pension Schemes.

The General Secretary said the initiative followed years of disagreement between government and the 12 Labour Unions and Associations, including the TEWU in their quest to resolve the issue.

According to him, some publications about the release of the money did not mention TEWU, which has been part of the 12 labour Unions that struggled from 2013 to date, before the eventual transfer by government.

“This unfortunately, has created the impression that TEWU was not a beneficiary of the Tier-2 Pension Funds, recently released by government”, he added.

Mr Karbo explained that such development was a calculated attempt to create disaffection against the TEWU leadership for their members to believe that their leaders were not working for their interest.

“Our members, who are being misled that TEWU is not fighting for you, I want to correct that impression, so that our members who have shown high level of resilience, during the protests, will not feel that their efforts were in vain”.

He said the TEWU and all other workers Unions, now have the arduous task of ensuring prudent investment of the released funds so that workers, who retire from January 2020 can enjoy quantitative and qualitative pension benefits.

Mr Karbo said, the expectation of Ghanaian workers, especially those who will start benefiting from the Tier-2 pension Funds by January 2020, was very high and Union leaders, “cannot afford to disappoint them”.

The TEWU belongs to the Ghana Education Service Occupational Pension Scheme, which also include NAGRAT and GNAT, among others.